Public greenhouses where you can get your plant fix

Stepping into warm public greenhouses filled with bright blooms and towering tropical trees on a cold winter’s day can cheer up anyone, especially housebound gardeners. Here’s a list of several indoor gardens, greenhouses and conservatories across Canada open to the public. Call or visit their websites for hours and possible entry fees.

Assiniboine Park Conservatory 460 Assiniboine Park Dr., Winnipeg; 204-888-5466; assiniboinepark.ca/mnuattractions#cons. The palm house has a tropical jungle and the floral display gallery offers more than 10 annual displays, including orchid and bonsai shows and a special holiday lights display.

Royal Botanical Gardens Mediterranean Garden 680 Plains Rd. W., Burlington, Ont.; 800-694-4769; rbg.ca. This garden under glass brings together plants that have adapted to the world’s five Mediterranean climate zones: the Mediterranean Basin, Cape Province South Africa, south and southwest Australia, central Chile and southern California. Special seasonal displays are featured in the bulb room.

Centennial Park Conservatory 151 Elmcrest Rd., Etobicoke, Ont.; 416-394-8543; toronto.ca/parks/prd/facilities/complex/798/index.htm. This breath of summer includes a large tropical house, two display houses, six growing houses, a potting shed and a bulb cellar. In addition to coffee, banana, fig, palm and pomegranate trees, there’s also a special Christmas display.

Cloud Forest Conservatory between Richmond St. W. and Temperance St., east of Yonge St., Toronto; 416-392-7288; toronto.ca/parks/parks_gardens/bayadelaidegdns.htm. This downtown sanctuary is a steamy tropical greenhouse, crowded with enormous jungle leaves, vines and palm trees. Built vertically as a “modernist ruin,” it features exposed steel, a waterfall and a mural depicting the trades of construction workers.

Tropical Greenhouse Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa; 613-230-3276; friendsofthefarm.ca. The tropical garden features 500 different plants. Highlights include a dwarf banana tree and an Arabian coffee tree, as well as an adjacent cactus and succulent display.

Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens Conservatory, Acadia University
32 University Ave., Wolfville, N.S.; 902-585-5242; botanicalgardens.acadiau.ca. Enjoy plant species indicative of each habitat of the outdoor botanical garden, as well as those of the coastal plain, year-round.

If there’s a public greenhouse in your area that you’d like to recommend, please send details to editors@gardenmaking.com